Author
Topic: TAR 20 Transport (Read 43195 times)

Of course Peach is right. There is no need to do this again, since post #59 has what you ask for. Here are the 3 most probable flight possibilities (although there are dozens of low probability alternatives):

GYD NBO on maybe Dec. 8, 2011

QR975 GYD DOH 1800 1945 connecting QR534 2030 0610+1

TK333 GYD IST 1330 1430 connecting TK607 1835 0210+1

EK256 GYD DXB 1845 2135 connecting KQ3110235+1 0645+1

Here is something new, a connection on to Kilimanjaro airport in Arusha Tanzania:

Of course Peach is right. There is no need to do this again, since post #59 has what you ask for. Here are the 3 most probable flight possibilities (although there are dozens of low probability alternatives):

GYD NBO on maybe Dec. 8, 2011

QR975 GYD DOH 1800 1945 connecting QR534 2030 0610+1

TK333 GYD IST 1330 1430 connecting TK607 1835 0210+1

EK256 GYD DXB 1845 2135 connecting KQ3110235+1 0645+1

Here is something new, a connection on to Kilimanjaro airport in Arusha Tanzania:

Dec. 9 NBO JRO PW724 0800 0900

Thanks! So Baku connection Istanbul connection Nairobie and then Arusha?

I guess I should have been clearer. Flights from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro (Arusha) or Kilimanjaro to Nairobi are all speculation. They may or may not happen. It is not a huge distance from Nairobi to Arusha, specifically 144 miles so buses or cars could easily be the source of transportation in either direction. What is clear based on schedules is that from outside Africa, flights will come in to Nairobi and from Africa to India the cross-Indian Ocean leg will be a flight from Nairobi.

I guess I should have been clearer. Flights from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro (Arusha) or Kilimanjaro to Nairobi are all speculation. They may or may not happen. It is not a huge distance from Nairobi to Arusha, specifically 144 miles so buses or cars could easily be the source of transportation in either direction. What is clear based on schedules is that from outside Africa, flights will come in to Nairobi and from Africa to India the cross-Indian Ocean leg will be a flight from Nairobi.

If they are flying from Nairobi to Kerala, South India, then they could just as well fly into Calicut International Airport in Karipur, Kerala as either Kochi or Trivandrum. Kozhikode (formerly Calicut) is known as the city of spices and is a textile center. It has many arrival flights from all over the Middle East, Kuwait, Oman, Saudia Arabia and all the emirates. Seems the Arabs like to hire the people of S India for their worker bees. It also has domestic connections to Mumbai and Delhi if they go somewhere else first in India. As far as exiting South India…..I think they would have to leave by either Kochi or Trivandrum. Both those airports have connections to either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore and both those airports have connections direct to Osaka.

If they are flying from Nairobi to Kerala, South India, then they could just as well fly into Calicut International Airport in Karipur, Kerala as either Kochi or Trivandrum. Kozhikode (formerly Calicut) is known as the city of spices and is a textile center. It has many arrival flights from all over the Middle East, Kuwait, Oman, Saudia Arabia and all the emirates. Seems the Arabs like to hire the people of S India for their worker bees. It also has domestic connections to Mumbai and Delhi if they go somewhere else first in India. As far as exiting South India…..I think they would have to leave by either Kochi or Trivandrum. Both those airports have connections to either Kuala Lumpur or Singapore and both those airports have connections direct to Osaka.

Dr. Rox,

The use of Kozhikode airport is possible, but unlikely. The reason is only one flight per day in from Mumbai and one flight per day out to Mumbai. The population in the metropolitan areas of Kochi, Thiruvananthapuram and Kozhikode is all at 2 million or slightly less. Thiruvananthapuram has the largest city population, followed by Kochi and by Kozhikode. So, bottom line, the probability of using either Thiruvananthapuram or Kochi for at least one leg is my conclusion.

It is only 113 miles from Thiruvananthapuram to Kochi and vice-versa, so that makes the possibility of 2 Kerala legs in those two cities reasonable. It would be possible to take the AR20 to Bangalore or Chennai or Goa or Mumbai or Delhi, but I don't think world Race Productions has done that. Kochi is next to Ernakulam, a major rail center for southern India.

I want to look ahead to leg 11 transportation where teams will have to fly from probably either Kochi or Trivandrum airports to Kansai Airprot in Osaka. It will take a minimum of 2 connections and nearly 24 hours to make the shortest possible trip. I have looked at routes through Chennai and through Mumbai and I strongly prefer those connecting in Mumbai. I have also looked at a second connection in Kuala Lumpur, Bangkok and Hong Kong, which I believe have the best possibilities for decent schedules. It turns out that the optimal second flight is Mumbai to Bangkok and the third is Bangkok to Osaka. Here are the specifics:

paldog123456

Here is one other, probably unlikely option. The teams could fly to Tokyo, which has a lot more connections, and then travel by train to Osaka or Kyoto. The bullet trains are super fast (it only takes a few hours).

Although that is a good idea in theory (only one air connection in Mumbai is needed to NH944 BOM NRT), the actual timing of that flight makes it unlikely (as you have stated alternative). Any flight from TRV or COK into Bombay will do, but NH922 timing is 2118 0825+1. Add at least 4 hours for disembarking and taking fast trains to Osaka. You have to have a morning flight from TRV or COK to get the optimal result, as most Amazing Race legs start between midnight and noon.

I do have a flight alternative to what you propose, but it suffers from the same drawback. Here it is (second connection is in Seoul):

Here is one other, probably unlikely option. The teams could fly to Tokyo, which has a lot more connections, and then travel by train to Osaka or Kyoto. The bullet trains are super fast (it only takes a few hours).

In the latest preview from CBS - I can see that the teams are at the Kenya airways transfer desk in Nairobi around 6:35 (there are 2 wall clocks visible).Of course I can't tell if its AM or PM.What does that tell us about flights?

I am trying to reconcile the information presented in this telecast to real-time flight information for Dec. 8, 2012. Previous information assumed Dec. 7 but if you count out the days of the race that cannot be true. I cannot quite get the first one to match but it's only a half hour off and has no impact on when teams reach Nairobi.

From Baku there are two flights to Istanbul possible (note - I also checked Dubai, Doha, Muscat and Cairo but none had any flights):

TK337 0800 0915J2 75 1000 1038

Both streams of teams meet up and got on the same Dec. 8 flight from Istanbul to Nairobi:

TK607 1843 0223+1

So then they wait around for about 5.5 hours for the first Precision Air flight to Arusha, PW724 0800+1 0900+1.

I am trying to reconcile the information presented in this telecast to real-time flight information for Dec. 8, 2012. Previous information assumed Dec. 7 but if you count out the days of the race that cannot be true. I cannot quite get the first one to match but it's only a half hour off and has no impact on when teams reach Nairobi.

From Baku there are two flights to Istanbul possible (note - I also checked Dubai, Doha, Muscat and Cairo but none had any flights):

TK337 0800 0915J2 75 1000 1038

Both streams of teams meet up and got on the same Dec. 8 flight from Istanbul to Nairobi:

TK607 1843 0223+1

So then they wait around for about 5.5 hours for the first Precision Air flight to Arusha, PW724 0800+1 0900+1.

The flight you have teams on from Nairobi to Kilimanjaro International, PW724, is a daylight flight. How do you reconcile that with the episode when teams land at Kilimanjaor in the dark, take a taxi from there to the Arusha airport, sign in for charter flights from Arusha to Ngorogoro, still in the dark. Then they have an HoO waiting for charter flights at 930, 945, 1000?

There is/was no 830 departure to anywhere from Baku on Dec 8. If you noticed the travel agent computer screens, TPTB had them all fogged up so we couldnt see. I think they were trying to fool up. I think a much more likely itinerary was:

I expect that teams will be leaving on December 12 after an extended pit stop in between the 2 Tanzania legs. Here are logical flight connections to go from Kilimanjaro Airport to Nairobi to Mumbai to Trivandrum:

JRO NBO PW723 0600 0655 or PW721 0915 0935 or 5H452 1415 1500

connecting to:

NBO BOM KQ202 1730 0406+1

connecting to:

BOM COK 9W2111 0535+1 0738+1 or SG131 0830 1015 or a number of later flights

In order to reach the first flight out of Kilimanjaro International Airport, teams will probably have to take a taxi for 100 miles (just like AR5) from the Kibaone area on the west side overlooking Lake Manyara. That will have to be done early enough to reach JRO by about 8am or 1pm, depending on which flight is possible. It [probably rules out the 6am flight for teams.

I thought I would run find available schedules on buses Kochi to Thivurananthapuram. However, almost all the potential websites provide train schedules only. Although there is bus service, they won't reveal schedules. The only one I discovered was this:

The road distance Kochi to Thiruvanananthapuram is only 177 km (108 miles).

There is an alternate report that the distance is 205 to 225km (sources vary) and buses take 5 hours, which is what is shown above. It appears that buses move about as slowly as trains do in Kerala.

The India Rail Ministry has approved, but it will be a long time before high speed rail is available in this corridor. when that happens and the first phase of this proposed project is completed travel between Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram will be reduced to 45 minutes.

I have reconsidered which route and flights the first 4 teams took. The arrival 45 minutes before 605am bothered me but I had to work extra hard to come up with a route and actual flight departures/arrivals that were closer. Here is what I believe they did through Muscat:

Dec. 12 PW486 JRO DAR 0740 0900

Dec. 12 WY716 DAR MCT 1645 2310 2323

Dec. 13 WY201 MCT COK 0150+1 0645+1

The problem with this is what I expect Vanessa/Ralph did:

Dec. 12 JRO NBO PW723 0600 0635

Dec. 12 NBO DOH QR539 1359 1856

Dec. 12 9W555 DOH COK 2320 0605+1

I think that the other teams actually connected through somewhere in the Middle East to get to Doha in time for the same 9W555 because teams appeared to arrive at the same time in Kochi. This would not be possible if they connected through Dubai (earlier arrival) or through Muscat (later arrival) or Mumbai (quite a bit later arrival).

Dec 9. Pit Stop for Leg 7 at Ngorogoro Crater Simba Camp @ around noon and ~18 pit stop till sunup on Dec 10.Dec 10 Start Leg 8 @ Ngorogoro Crater tour and finish Leg in Mto Wa Mbu the same day. I see no evidence of an extended pit stop for sightseeing. The sightseeing was covered in the Ngorogoro Crater tour. I believe the length of the pit stops were determined by filming in HD during the daytime. So pit stop at the Simba camp was around 18 hours and the pit stop after Lake Manyaro pit stop was 26-28 hours to give teams time to book flights to India

After re-watching the start of Episode 9 multiple times, I have an alternate theory on how teams got from the orchard pit stop in Mto Wa Mbu, Tanzania to Cochin, India.

Bopper/Mark finished Leg 8 very close to midday Dec 10. When B/M and R/D approach the mat, there is almost no shadow. When Ralph/Vanessa and Nary/Jamie arrive, the shadows are very pronounced/elongated, late afternoon Dec 10. I believe that teams were transported to Arusha from Mto Wa Mbu in daylight on Dec 10. The Pit Start on Leg 9 was in darkness on evening of Dec 11, in a fairly well lighted town. The taxis were parked near a curb. What I am attempting to say, is that the Pit Stop Release for Leg 9 was not in Mto Wa Mbu, but in Arusha on the evening of Dec 11. Plus if you look at the special credits posted by Slowhatch here http://forum.realityfanforum.com/index.php/topic,26988.100.html

You will see that the Mt. Meru Hotel was listed in the credits. It is in Arusha and is an 8 story luxury hotel. The décor of the hotel rooms match the room that the doctor examines Bopper’s knee in. So I think that the pit release for Bopper/Mark was at 9:06 pm on Dec11, 2011 in Arusha. With the other teams following. They are directed to go to Rickshaw Travel (also in Arusha) to get tickets for flights to Cochin, India. Seems like another example where Production got a local travel agent to remain open after hours. The first four teams all book the same itinerary, through Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, arriving in Cochin @ 6:05 am on Dec 13. They will fly out of Kilimanjaro International at 7:40 am on Dec 12. When Ralph/Vanessa arrive at the travel agency, all the other teams have left…either to the airport or back to the hotel. It is about 30 miles from Arusha to Kilimanjaro International. Ralph/Vanessa actually get on the 6:00 am flight to Nairobi. From the short conversation, it appeared that some seats had just opened up, according to the travel agent. One would think that if seats were available earlier, the other teams would have booked them. Reminds me of the finale flights in TAR5 in a way. Last team in to the airport, got the first flights out.

I congratulate you on good detective work getting teams to Arusha but it hardly matters given that they started at 906pm to 131am whether they started in Mto Wa Mbu or in Arusha.

On your assertion that the teams in DarEsSalaam flew from DAR to Doha, here is some information that devastates your assertion:

QR 535 Qatar Airways 13:59 18:56 This is for a flight from Nairobi to Doha. The only flight from DAR to DOH was QR545 1756 2332. On arrival, they were too late to connect to 9W555, which was the flight clearly taken by Vanessa and Ralph.